The corporate pyramid ..

As I recently read somewhere the corporate pyramids has 3 levels:

1. The top level - sociopaths
2. The middle level - clueless folks
3. The lower level - the losers

Will post a link to the cartoon if i find it online...

Traffic in Hitec City

The traffic police in India have traditionally come up with several strategies to regulate traffic. Many are familiar with the posters like "Speed Thrills but Kills", "Wear a helmet - save your brain" (with a helpful picture of the human brain), "Traffic safety begins with you" ...

Posters/ads are not terribly effective, so the hitech city traffic folks have come up with an innovative approach - pre-recorded messages. If you are someone who stops when the traffic light goes red, you can hear the following:

"STOP!! You have crossed the stop line. When the red light is on please stop before the stop line." (translated from telugu)

Unsuspecting drivers who are in hitech city for the first time get psyched out of their wits when they hear messages like these and instinctively backup their cars/bikes hoping to get behind the imaginary stop line to avoid a traffic fine and in the process collide with the vehicles behind :) .

A classic example of a cure which is worse than the disease :)!!

where can I get that dll from?

Once in a while we get pained about a missing dll. There's help for microsoft dlls - msdn has a dll help database which can be used to find out which products ship with a particular dll. Here's the link: http://support.microsoft.com/dllhelp/

Change this...

Recently stumbled upon this interesting site: http://www.changethis.com. From their manifesto....

... All too often, though, weʼre led to change our minds on the basis of charisma, not
facts. People are so easily influenced by a charismatic leader, the kind of person weʼd
be eager to befriend, to have dinner with, to follow. We choose someone based on his
personality and then do whatever he tells us to do. .... We go to war or create a new product or move to Jonestown.... in our electronic universe itʼs easier than ever for one charismatic demagogue to sway the opinions of millions of people—without resorting to rational thought, provable assertions or the longterm implications of their efforts...

Changethis focuses on the rational and thoughtful arguments that help people change their minds to a more productive point of view...

I had a quick look at some of their articles and this one struck a chord with me - The Talent Myth. Anyone who has worked in the dotcom boom will identify with some of the points made :)...

Fun things to tell a manager...

Here are the top 5 fun things to tell your manager. I gathered these from many informal conversations with many experts ... They could be severely career limiting, so use them at your own risk... :)

1. General Chat - I love to work in your group; it ensures that there is atleast one person more incompetent than me.
   
   
2. When discussing career growth and opportunities - I have left many companies in my short career and I won't hesitate to do it again.
   
   
3. During the performance review - What do you mean - "Your performance is not up to expectation"? I wrote many more mails than you did!
   
   
4. On Design Discussions - I really like the free flow of ideas that we enable by encouraging people to get drunk before closing on major design decisions. Our product is richer for that fact!
   
   
5. On Integrity - Can you teach me how you can lie with such a straight face without letting shame or embarrasment show?